Who is Soul Battler Takeshi?

If you picked up the Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete Works book, you may have noticed this guy hanging out at the bottom of page 112. If you don’t remember him from any of the games, there’s a good reason why!

Meijin: It’s perfectly understandable why they don’t recognize you. After all, Takeshi, the only place your name appeared in the games was on the message boards!

Takeshi: Seriously!? But I’m a real Net Battler! I’ve been all over the country participating in the official EXE tournament events! And I still haven’t achieved celebrity status!?

Meijin: There there, calm down now. I’m sure you’re a hotly popular figure to everyone who saw you in person at the conventions, but there’s still a lot of people out there who didn’t get to go to those events. You have to consider them, too……

Takeshi: Fine, I guess it doesn’t matter. Anyway! As I was saying, today I’m proud to announce that my very own Mod Card is finally ready! You can find it at the end of this very book, so go on and check it out!

Takeshi’s Mod Card has arrived!!

Special Privilege Mod CardSoul Batler’s Customize

To find your real Special Privilege Mod Card, go straight to the back of the book!

When they say he’s a real Net Battler, they mean it!

From this YouTube video taken at Tokyo’s World Hobby Fair in 2010. Unless you’ve been to an EXE convention in Japan, you probably wouldn’t know this guy. But somehow, he really is a fan favorite among the kids!

Soul Battler Takeshi was one of the hosts of EXE tournaments, appearing in skits and demonstrations with the real-life Mr. Famous, Masakazu “Meijin” Eguchi (EXE scenario writer, who is also the DASH3 producer)! You could find him organizing the quiz events, providing commentary, conducting post-battle interviews with the tournament contestants, participating in the award ceremonies, pretty much all over the place. Takeshi even made an appearance on u-Capcom a few years back, answering fan mail.

Takeshi was the passionate hot-blood battler, to contrast with Meijin’s cool and calculated strategies. More often than not, that fiery headstrong enthusiasm ended up in a beatdown. Here you can watch him get his butt kicked by Kids Station’s Shinya “Hobbycho” Takahashi in a Rockman EXE OSS Net Battle at that same event.

Still, for those who like to rush hot with guns blazing, Takeshi’s EXE6 Soul Battler customization card is a must have. It bestows upon the player +4 Attack, Rapid, and Charge attributes, Super Armor, and turns the charge shot into a Super Vulcan attack. (Since I don’t have an e-Reader, mine is still in its envelope!) After much fan outpouring for the guy, he finally wound up getting his own EXE portrait art with an official SciLab uniform, and his own mod card! A just reward for all his enthusiastic hard work!